Somewhere between the recent trip back to Belgium and the monsoon hitting Mumbai I realized that I got very attached to the idea of having a home. Obviously Antwerp will always be home but I feel more at home in our Mumbai apartment. I get that this sounds very confusing but what I am trying to say is that you create a home around people (or that one person obviously) and objects. It's just no fun to call a place your home when there are no personal artifacts around!

A few people asked me about « the Mumbai home » last time I was in Belgium and since our interior is now pretty much sorted, it’s finally a good time to show you around.

When we first arrived in Mumbai we wanted to find an apartment as soon as possible so I saw about 40 places in 2 days. It was a mix of furnished and unfurnished apartments and it was a complete mess. I remember arriving at the first few buildings, thinking I got caught up in a practical joke because all buildings looked like deserted blocks of snipped paint, but when entering the actual apartment that view changed quite quickly. It’s just a fact that the Mumbai climate isn’t the ideal environment to keep buildings pretty. (Which on its part explains why Mumbai isn't a very beautiful city, esthetically speaking and all.)

We went with an unfurnished apartment and little by little I made this rental our home (I should probably say we but I’m just going to be honest and admit that I called the shots on our interior design). It’s quite hard to find beautiful furniture here since locals seem to prefer different wood colors; we have a weakness for teak and oak whereas here they’d go with mango and will always put a dark varnish. And although I love mango’s I just don’t happen to like the wood from the trees they grow on…

So our place is now a mix of custom made stuff, things we found on different antique markets around Mumbai and items from local designers. Also calculate in that we’ve traveled back and forth a few times so there might be some 100 something kg’s of European knick-knack lying around. (Just for your information and my delight!)